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Can a music CD really make you a genius?
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Well, you will have to tell me.
My name is Kate, and I created this CD, The Aqua Path. I have a very strange story to tell you. In fact, I’m still kind of spooked by it. Basically, my little recording project, just meant to blow off creative steam while doing my game contracts, may not be simple music at all. It may actually be a Mind Control Device. I’m not kidding! It seems far-fetched, but just wait till you hear the rest of the story to decide.
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Based on the feedback I've gotten from artist-types, this CD could unlock your "inner genius" - your superconscious mind.
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First of all, I never intended for The Aqua Path to become the "Mind Control Music" that it seems to be. When I was between video game jobs, I thought of doing a small studio project, just for fun. What followed was the strangest 4 months of my life.
I *was* just gonna start "messing around" with sounds. But as soon as I sat down in my studio chair, I was struck with the odd idea of writing classical/ambient fusion with a water theme. I had never, ever written or even heard of this kind of music before! It was like something had put the idea right into my head.
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The entire concept for the CD, and the entire 60 minutes of music was *there* - fully formed - inside my imagination, and all I did was follow the recipe.
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For 4 months, I practically lived in the studio. The songs wrote themselves from the ground up. Some people experience this for a short period of time '" just imagine living that way for weeks and months!
For the two vocal songs, I dashed off the lyrics *and* melody in 20 minutes. And these are people's favorite songs on the CD! Harmonies would pour into my head when I needed them. When it came time to mix and master a song, I would sit down '" totally focused '" and work until the song was finished. I was constantly thinking about music, mixing, sound design.
In fact, I barely remember anything else about those 4 months. It wasn't until I sent the master off to the manufactures that I "snapped out of it." I felt like I had been abducted by aliens and lost 4 months of memories! I have to tell you, it was intense. I felt kind of relieved to get my mind back!
That should have been my first clue that this music was more than music, but I didn't catch on. I didn't think about it too much because I was too busy with life, my next job, you know... stuff.
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What my audience found out: the music makes them "see pictures" and "feel different."
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Fortunately, I had a big enough ego to solicit reviews. I got some great ones from ambient magazines. It was gratifying, especially after my mentors in the game field gave it rave reviews, but something happened that I didn't expect...
After I got a little exposure, I started to get email from people who ordered it off CD Baby and Amazon, and they were all saying the same thing. Their letters said that The Aqua Path made them "see pictures" or "feel different" when they listened to it. And they were all creative people of some kind '" photographers, many graphic designers, programmers, painters... a really weird correlation!
Fast forward 2, 3 years later. A steady trickle of orders had been coming in with a few more fan letters, all from more artists! But still, I didn't focus on promoting it because it was just a little side project.
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And then... Surprise! This November, I learned the truth about The Aqua Path.
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During the 4 months, I had been Mind Controlled by my own music. The songs I wrote, the techniques I used to write the music, and the nature sounds I mixed in with the electronic stuff - all were ways of stimulating my superconscious mind, which is where creativity comes from!
Just imagine what had happened to me! I wrote the first song, listening to it over and over in the process of recording it, which sparked the creativity to write the second, and the third... Soon I had gotten caught in this wave of creativity, and all I had to do was sit back and let it run its course! No wonder I was totally immersed for months '" I was controlling my own mind in a creativity loop!
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Where your creativity, "genius" and "problem solving ability" comes from (according to current psychology.)
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I bet you're wondering how I found all this out and put the pieces together. I have an unusual hobby, which is reading about psychology and recent developments in creativity. This year, I discovered the work of Brian Tracy, who is an leader in career/business/psychology coaching. In one of his courses, "The Psychology of Achievement," he talks about specific techniques to stimulate the superconscious mind, which is where creativity comes from.
The superconscious mind isn't new. It has been experienced and described by many well-known artists and geniuses, such as Mozart, Emerson, Beethoven, Edison. It is where your best ideas come from, those 'out of the blue' flashes of insight that help you to creatively solve problems that you thought were impossible to solve.
I just about fell off my chair when I got to the part about "How to access your superconscious mind" in Brian Tracy's course. I couldn't believe it, but some of the exact techniques are built into the music of The Aqua Path. There's plenty of information about this available in psychology journals and the net, so I'll just sum up the key points:
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1) Sounds of the ocean. Listening to ocean waves stimulates your superconscious mind. Being water themed, most of The Aqua Path's songs contain sounds of water or the ocean, but that's not all...
2) All the songs mimic different 'rhythms of nature,' which also stimulate your superconscious mind. Rain, choppy waves on a lake, a slow tide '" these are all rhythms that we, as creatures of nature, instinctively recognize.
3) Classical music. Many people have heard that "Mozart makes you smarter." In fact, all classical music does this. In The Aqua Path, I fused classical techniques with ambient music, using real instruments such as clarinet and violin against a background of water ambience. It's truly mesmerizing and seems to amplify the 'mind control' power of the nature sounds.
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The Aqua Path basically takes classical music techniques, and integrates them with the sounds and rhythms of the ocean, combining three powerful creativity tools into one. And best of all, you *could* find the answer to that tough problem, just by listening to 60 minutes of music.
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Can I really prove it? No. You'll have to try it for yourself, and report back to me!
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I don't buy into mystical stuff, but even *I* know that the way the mind works is still a mystery. And I can't ignore all the letters from artists and "creative types" who tell me that it helps them imagine and create. Obviously, this evidence is not cold, hard facts, and I can't really "prove" that my CD will work for you, even if it's worked for other people.
Since you're on CD Baby and not my website, the only thing I can do here is offer you a full refund if you're not satisfied. However, if you go to my website, I will give you the chance to try the CD out for 10 days, for free. I don't feel right if I charge you for being part of my experiment, and it doesn't work! On my website, all you have to do is give me your address and I'll ship the CD to you.
If you don't like it, just send it back to me. If you do like The Aqua Path and want to keep it, I'll email you an easy invoice you can pay with a credit card.
Of course, The Aqua Path *is* good music, and many people like it for its mood of peace and tranquility. It *has* gotten great reviews from many ambient lovers just on the merits of the music. But I'm very, very interested to know if the "Mind Control" aspects are real or, well, "all in my head." It certainly has a strong correlation, but I'm a scientist so I can't make any claims based on that:)
Try it, tell me what you think. Listen to the MP3s from CD Baby first, if you want to evaluate the quality of the music. But above all, report back to me! I want to know!
Thanks,
Kate (the first guinea pig).
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